Interracial Marriage, part 1/Casamento Interracial, parte 1

Today I read a story about a football assistant coach who thinks that the reason he hasn’t been offered a head coach position is because he is married to a white woman. Charlie Strong, an African-American, had heard rumors that his being in an interracial marriage eliminated his chances of being hired when he interviewed for a position two years ago. Another black college football coach, Turner Gill, of the Buffalo Bulls, also believes he was denied a head coach position because his wife is white. The job was given to a man who had a less impressive resume. Both of these men sought coaching positions in the southern region of the United States where views on interracial relationships are still very conservative. Until this point, I have not approached the topic of interracial marriages and relationships although they remain a controversial topic in America, and although people believe the existence of interracial marriages means that Brazil is free of prejudice against these marriages, it is also a topic that guarantees a difference of opinion there also.

In the past 40 years there has been a steady increase of interracial marriage in America since the historic 1967 ruling in the case of Loving vs. Virginia declared such marriages legal. Although interracial marriage in America is still considered a taboo today, in the early years of the United States, this was not true. Several history books prove that unions between black women and white men, and even black men and white women were not rare in the first centuries of the colonization of the United States. In comparison, interracial marriage is much more common in Brazil although studies have shown that the widespread history of miscegenation in the country is due more to unions outside of marriage, many of which were exploitative relationships between white men and black women. Studies have also proven that there is more rejection of interracial marriage in southeastern Brazilian states where whites represent the vast majority. In 1960, interracial marriages represented only 13% of all marriages. By 1991, the rate had become 23% and today is estimated to represent 27% of all Brazilian marriages. But one thing to remember when the subject is race and racial identity in Brazil is that terminology, classification and identity is much more ambiguousthan in America. In other words, a white person in one opinion may be considered mixed race for others. A mixed race person in the opinionof one person may be black in the opinion of another person. With this in mind, an interracial couple for one person could be seen as two black people, two white people or any other combination for others.

For many Brazilians, America is a country where people of different races don’t interact or marry. In reality, they are right and wrong. AlthoughAmerica remains a very segregated country, between the years 1970 and 2005, interracial marriages increased almost 700%. Marriages betweenblacks and whites represent at least 25% of those marriages. And although only approximately 7% of American marriages are defined as interracial,those statistics are in some way misleading. For example, blacks represent only 13% of the American population while whites are approximately 70%. Thus, because whites still represent the majority of the American population and more than 97% of whites marry other whites, the rates of interracialmarriage in the US appear to be much smaller than in Brazil, a country where blacks and whites each represent approximately 49% of the population. If the marriage rates of only minorities were considered, the percentages increase. For instance, 10% of African American marriages featured a non-blackpartner. 30% of Asians and Latinos outside of their race, while more than 60% of Native Americans marry outside of their race.

One Response to “Interracial Marriage, part 1/Casamento Interracial, parte 1”

It is an unfortunate reality that Strong and Gill are attempting to explain a complex situation. I have read elsewhere that they were told that having an interracial marriage was a stumbling-block for their career (so they weren’t race-baiting like many in the media have insinuated). Yet in some cases, being married to a member of the predominate group could mean an advantage over a minority that was married to another minority. Strong or Gill could be received as not being like the typical “other” by someone who is harboring racist feelings, thereby making them more likely to be favored and “safe”. It’s a moving target as you never know since no one wants to be honest about their feelings.